


Say it with Pictures

by Aidaran



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Babel Trek Open Project (Star Trek), Bones log, Fluff, Funny, Gen, Medicine, Mysterious illness, just everyday Enterprise stuff, no translator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:46:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22147381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aidaran/pseuds/Aidaran
Summary: When Bones contracts a mysterious illness that messes up his language, he and Spock are forced to get creative to work on a cure.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 57
Collections: The Babel Trek Open Project





	Say it with Pictures

**Author's Note:**

> A big thank you to StarTravel, who beta'ed me. She's always the best!

_ Enterprise medical log, stardate 3345.6. _

_ As I record this, we are finally managing to eradicate the plague that has taken hold of the whole ship. After all my years working in frontier stations I’ve been exposed to all kinds of unusual illnesses, but nothing like this one. And the worse part is... it seems I was patient zero. _

\--------

Bones glared at the small beings surrounding them, talking in a odd mix of sounds that didn’t resemble anything they had heard before. They seemed to be all around in the colony they were visiting.

“Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a universal translator!” His protests didn’t get the reaction he was used to. Stranger still. Spock didn’t raise an eyebrow, Sulu didn’t smirk in the background, the captain didn’t roll his eyes with fondness.

“Doctor, have you adjusted your translator today?” Spock scanned him thoroughly with his tricorder, until Bones pushed it aside, annoyed and frustrated at the blank looks he was getting. 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Of course his translator was calibrated. He could understand the damn green blooded goblin perfectly.

“Can you understand me?” Kirk got closer, looking at him suspiciously, a touch of a smile at the corner of his mouth. 

“Of course I can, Jim! You don’t need to get this close to my face.”

“Fascinating. The only distinguishable word was your name, Captain.” Spock attempted to scan him again, but Bones took a step back and gave his friend an icy glare. 

“I’ll give you something to be fascinated about, Spock, if you keep beeping me.”

“Oh, look, your name too.” Kirk sounded more worried this time, though, the hint of amusement in his gaze completely gone. 

“Is this your idea of a joke?” Bones started to scan himself too, worried. He tried to talk again, losing what little hope he had of being understood. “I think we should go back to the ship.”

“Spock, I think we should go back to the ship and take him to the infirmary.”

“A smart idea, captain.”

“Hey, it was my idea to begin with!” Bones sighed as the damn transporter took him back home.

\---------------

_ I guess I should retell what happened today from the beginning, although I’m not sure what we’ll end up sounding like. Even now I’m not sure the vaccine we’ve developed is already taking effect or if all I say is gibberish, and Spock is only playing an elaborate Vulcan joke on me. _

_ We picked up a distress signal from a recently established colony. Up until now, they had not had problems with the local fauna, even if it was impossible to translate their language. The planet had a big population of a small, green looking creature that seemed to be gregarious, but with disorganized speech.  _

_ But when the transmission arrived, nothing from what the colones said was in any language known to the translator.  _

_ A party was assembled and we went to the surface to investigate. _

_ \---------- _

“I don’t see anything wrong with them, aside from the aphasia.” Bones scanned them, frowning. 

The colonists were all talking in a language untranslatable, and what’s more, there was not a common structure from one to another, so it was clear it was not a new language but something different and potentially dangerous. They sounded a bit like the little green creatures that ran all around them.

“Do you think by coming here we’ve been exposed to some sort of illness, doctor McCoy?” Spock asked, while taking samples.

“Probably. I’ve been saying we need protective gear for years, but does Starfleet ever listen to me? Oh no, they don’t.”

“I imagine they find your notes too... emotional.”

“Oh, well, next time I’ll ask you to write them for me, mister Logic.”

“Gentlemen, please.” Kirk looked at them fondly. “So, do you have any idea why the colonists can’t talk, Bones?”

“Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a universal translator!” And then he realized he’s been infected too.

\-----------

_ Despite my initial attempts at isolating myself to avoid the spreading of the illness, soon Spock came to my office, exhibiting the same symptoms, and as I had noticed when treating the villagers, his speech pattern was not the same as mine, so we were unable to communicate. Via comms, the captain kept me informed of the situation, and soon it became obvious it was some sort of airborne illness, as more crewmembers started to fall ill. _

_ \------------ _

“Excuse me, lieutenant, what did you say?” Kirk turned at Uhura, as she answered a subspace communication.

“I was telling them to stand by, as we seem to be having trouble communicating with the colony.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to go to the infirmary too.” Kirk shook his head. “I didn’t understand a word you’ve said.”

\--------

_ 2 hours after my initial exposure to whatever this illness was, red alert was declared and all the crew confined to their quarters until further orders, although I’m sure the captain agreed with me, even if he couldn’t understand a single word I said, that it was now too late, since the ventilation had probably made the virus spread to all the rooms already. _

_ \--------- _

Kirk felt lonely, and a bit bored. The only two people on the bridge now were him and Scotty, and neither could figure out why they were immune. He’d tried to talk to the engineer, but the best he’d been able to get out of him were ideas to purge the vent system. Good ones, and in fact he’d started to work on them right away, but it seemed it was too late now. He pressed a button on his chair.

“Spock, report? How are things on the infirmary?” A string of syllables came out of the comm, and the only words he could make out of it were  _ Kirk  _ and  _ McCoy _ . “Yes, sorry, I’m afraid I can’t understand anything. I guess that means you’re no closer to a solution than you were before?” Another string of gibberish. He sighed.

He heard the subspace comm, and decided to answer. 

“This is Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. We’re still in red alert.”

“Sorry captain, what did you say? It seems our systems may be malfunctioning, since we can’t make out any of your words.”

\-------

_ 4 hours after the initial outbreak, the only person still standing was Scotty, and a careful testing of his blood and vitals didn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary. At that point I was starting to feel discouraged, when commander Spock had an idea. _

_ \---------- _

Spock jumped suddenly to a cabinet and grabbed paper and some crayons.

“Really, Spock? Are you now reverting to kindergarten?” Bones rolled his eyes, annoyed, until he understood what Spock was doing.

Spock showed him a crude drawing of a microscope, and then two samples. One had a smiling Vulcan, the other was slightly different and an annoyed Vulcan looking at it.

“Spock, your drawing skills are terrible.” 

The next drawing, he showed a more detailed view of the one with the unhappy Vulcan and then pointed at the microscope. He pinched his finger until a blood drop fell on the slab and showed Bones a picture of him, looking through the lens. 

Bones looked at the green blood in front of his eyes, and then ran to the computer, searching manually for a sample of Spock’s blood prior to the incident. Yes, definitely, they were different.  _ Something _ was swimming in his blood. Something small enough to have been there without being detected for 4 hours.

He changed the slab and this time tested his own blood, and saw the same invasor. He took paper and a crayon and drew it, showing it to Spock, who nodded and this time gave him a rendition of a very annoyed looking Kirk getting a shot.

“Ah, you won’t offer to be the test subject?” Bones drew in exchange Spock being injected, and put the drawing in front of his face.

Spock pulled his sleeve up and showed him his arm, defiantly, only to then draw them mixing chemicals in a lab.

“Very well, you go first.” Bones made gestures for him to enter the lab, and they both walked inside, annoyed and with crayons in their hands.

\---------

_ We worked tirelessly for hours until our experiments showed we had a potential cure. After a bit of very serious and mature discussion, we decided which one would go first. _

_ \---------- _

Bones showed Spock a coin, and a pair of drawings. In one, a smiling Bones injected Spock, with a coin’s head at his side. On the other, the roles were reversed, and the coin was showing the tail. He showed him the real one, a golden Andorian coin, fresh out of his pocket, and dared him with his eyes. 

Spock nodded.

The coin flew.

It flipped midair, and both men looked at it expectantly.

It fell.

Both men looked at it.

Then looked at each other, and one of them gulped.

\-------

_ After a bit of discussion, it was decided I’d be the one getting the first dose of the medicine. I only hoped Spock was able to give a shot, since I’m not sure what kind of medicine Vulcans practice. _

_ \----------- _

“Ouch! Try not to pierce my arm, you heartless Vulcan!” Bones rubbed the place he’d been pinched with annoyance, and watched as Spock shot himself.

“You know, doctor McCoy, I’m already able to understand when you talk, and if you were a good physician, you’d know my heart is actually 2.5 times bigger than yours.”

“It doesn’t show.”

Spock ignored him, and prepared more doses. 

**Author's Note:**

> This story just popped in my mind and I wrote it in one sitting, but I hope this is the first of many, since I love playing with the TOS crew. I wanted to experiment a bit with the narrative so using a log was fun!
> 
> Comments and Kudos are love!


End file.
